In the Internet communication, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is widely used. Reception processing and transmission processing of TCP/IP is executed by software operating on a CPU (Central Processing Unit). However, with recent remarkable advancement in a network speed, processing load of software has increased.
It is suggested a data reception apparatus that achieves high speed communication processing by processing TCP/IP protocol with dedicated hardware and reducing the TCP/IP protocol processing performed by a CPU.
Since the above data reception apparatus is connected to a network via apparatuses such as a repeater, a bridge, a switching hub, a router, it is necessary to solve malfunction if there is any malfunction in these apparatuses. In particular, when the data reception apparatus is used as an industrial apparatus and in a social infrastructure, a network failure in a communication path caused by malfunction of these apparatuses would result in a serious problem. Accordingly, for example, a plurality of communication paths which are connected to different apparatuses respectively are prepared to improve the reliability.
It is suggested a communication apparatus for improving the reliability while achieving high speed communication, wherein the communication apparatus includes a plurality of NICs (Network Interface Cards) each having a hardware offload engine, and when one of the NICs fails, failover with another NIC occurs.
However, the above communication apparatus needs to have as many NICs each having the hardware offload engine as the number of communication paths. This causes a problem that the cost increases.